


this is the story of how i died

by musicals_musicals



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: Emma is flynn and alyssa is rapunzel, Gen, Government Conspiracy, Heist, Inspired by Tangled (2010), Multi, Tangled AU, but since this is just a small chunk alyssa doesn't actually appear in this sorry, but with a twist, fuck capitalism, or like.... monarchy conspiracy, the kingdom is corrupt, this is that, you know the opening scene where flynn steals the crown and betrays the two dudes?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27983652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicals_musicals/pseuds/musicals_musicals
Summary: Emma watched in horror as the screwdriver fell to the ground, shattering the glass of the empty case and landing with a clatter where the crown used to be. Within seconds one of the guards was pulling the alarm and they were flocking to the ground below Emma.“Stop!” One of the guards reached up with her spear but Emma was already too far above them.Emma waved down at the guards “You might want to look for a new job”
Relationships: Greg & Emma Nolan (The Prom Musical), Kaylee & Shelby (The Prom Musical)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Dance With Us Week 2020





	this is the story of how i died

**Author's Note:**

> posted for dance with us day 6 au day

Emma leaned over the skylight, taking in the throne room, empty except for a line of guards facing the door way. She nodded at Kaylee a few windows over and the other woman carefully began unsealing the pane of glass, lifting it up and out when she was done. 

“Are we sure Nolan should be the grab team?” Kaylee complained for the millionth time. Emma kind of hated her, but she and Shelby were the only thieves willing to go for the crown, and Emma’s plan required 3 people.

“It’s my gear and my plan” Emma said, walking past Kaylee to begin setting up the pulley system. While playing the long game for 5 years the crown has always been Emma’s end goal, and she’s run this plan so many times she could probably do it in her sleep. “Remember, don’t let me drop too far, if I touch the ground an alarm will go off, making this one hundred times more complicated”

“Yeah, yeah” Shelby waved off Emma’s reminder “We know the drill”

“And as soon as we pull you back up we make our get away and split the cash from the crown,” Kaylee reminded, fixing Emma with a hard glare. 

“Of course,” Emma lied. As if she would ever sell the one item capable of putting someone competent in charge. “Guard change should be finishing up any second now”

Shelby hooked the rope to Emma’s harness and handed her the tool belt that they put together for this exact purpose. “Ready…”

They all held their breath as the final guard took their place and the door to the throne room locked with a click. “Go”

Emma jumped through the skylight that Shelby had removed, holding onto the rope to keep herself steady. The sight of the glass box drawing closer and closer, made Emma feel alive. She was so close, a few more feet and the most valuable item in the kingdom would be within reach.

_ Achoo! _

Emma froze and above her Kaylee and Shelby quickly followed suit, leaving her hanging in the middle of the floor and the ceiling. The guard sneezed a few more times, and the other guards turned to look at him. Was this it? Is her master plan really foiled by some dust? Emma held her breath, silently begging the guards not to notice her. The universe must’ve been on her side as none of the guards raised the alarm, they simply turned back to watching the door. Emma waited a few more seconds before gesturing for Kaylee and Shelby to continue.

The case was finally in reach. Emma grabbed the same tool Shelby had used on the skylight and carefully disconnected the top layer of glass. The crown was heavier than she was expecting, large gemstones designed in the shape of a sun with delicately braided gold. Emma dropped it in her satchel and put the glass back, giving Shelby the cue to pull her back up.

She rose slowly above the throne room, the pulley that she spent hours oiling and adjusting did its job. Spinning silently despite supporting Emma’s weight. 

Even afterwards, Emma is still unsure of exactly what happened next, possibly one of the pockets on the tool belt ripped, or the screwdriver wasn’t put away correctly, either way she watched in horror as it fell to the ground, shattering the glass and landing with a clatter where the crown used to be. Kaylee and Shelby began pulling her up faster, but it was too late.

Within seconds one of the guards was pulling the alarm and they were flocking to the ground below Emma.

“Stop!” One of the guards reached up with her spear but Emma was already too far above them.

Emma waved down at the guards “You might want to look for a new job” She pulled herself up and back onto the roof, not even bothering to disconnect the harness before breaking into a sprint, climbing down the side of the castle and disappearing into the city.

Step 2: Lose the guards in the city.

It wasn’t the most logical method, after all the longer they stayed near the castles the more guards would be in play, and they could just as easily lose the guards in the forest, but Emma knew these streets, and more importantly, Kaylee and Shelby did not. She could hear them falling farther and farther behind thanks to Emma turning randomly into alleyways and jumping fences. Unfortunately right as she was about to lose them a guard popped up in front of them, forcing Emma to turn into what was basically a dead end thanks to a high wall at the end of the alley.

“You could’ve waited for us,” Kaylee complained, getting to the wall a few seconds after Emma.

“It’s not my fault you can’t keep up. This was part of the plan” Emma said, the last thing she needed was Kaylee and Shelby getting suspicious when she was so close. The dead end offered an opportunity, one that Emma would be foolish to pass up.

“What are we going to do now?” Shelby jumped for the top of the wall, but her hand didn’t even come close.

“We need to work fast. You two can boost me up, then I’ll pull you over”

“Give us the satchel first” Kaylee held out her hand. Emma instinctually tightened her hold on the worn strap, Kaylee’s eyes catching the movement. Emma forced herself to loosen her hold, casually holding out the bag and waving it around.

“Really? After all this you still don’t trust me?”

“Give us the bag Nolan, then we’ll boost you over” Shelby repeated, standing shoulder to shoulder with Kaylee.

Fine, Emma could work with this. “Sheesh– well if you insist”

Kaylee took the bag, squinting at Emma for another few seconds, “Okay, Shelby can I get on your shoulders?”

Kaylee attached the bag to her belt to free up her hands to climb on Shelby’s shoulders, putting her head within a few feet of the top of the wall, while still being out of reach. Once it was her turn Emma carefully climbed both of them to the top of the wall, slipping the bag out of Kaylee’s belt loops, channeling her many years of living off pickpocketing. The wall was about a foot wide, allowing Emma to sit comfortably on top. The guards were getting closer, the first had just turned down the alleyway

“Okay, now pull us up Nolan. Quick”

“Hmm, I don’t think I will” Emma grinned down at Kaylee and held up the bag, causing the other woman to reach desperately for her belt only to find it empty.

“You don’t want us as enemies,” Shelby threatened, trying to stand up straight enough to lift Kaylee high enough to grab the top of the wall.

“I think I’ll risk it,” Emma spun around and slid off the other side of the wall, landing without injury since it was way shorter, dropping her right on the edge of the city. Kaylee and Shelby would be fine once the guards didn’t realize they had anything of value. 

The forest was like a breath of fresh air, vegetation muting sound in a way the stone walls of the city do not. The path is familiar, she spent months plotting it based off of an old one from when she was a kid (she then spent another month plotting a separate trail for Kaylee and Shelby). Emma doesn’t slow until the sounds of the city are far behind her, at which point she switches from a sprint to something closer to a jog. All of the guards were there chasing her in the city so she had a lead, she just had to keep up a steady pace for long enough to get to a safe location.

“Stop in the name of the King and Queen!”

_ Fuck. _ Emma slowly spun around, hands resting on top of her head. There was a guard on a horse standing not 20 feet to her right. This was bad. She planned this out, the only way for this guard to have caught her is if he knew where she was going to be. The guard jumped off his horse and approached her, handcuffs held at his side. The closer he got, the more familiar he looked. “Wait a minute, Greg?”

“Long time no see, Em” Her cousin at least had the decency to look a little sheepish. It was almost funny, except for the fact that he was foiling her plan. “A shame we had to meet this way”

“You’re working for  _ them _ ?” Emma asked, circling Greg, refusing to let him get too close “How could you do that?”

“They’re the king and queen, Em” Greg had the audacity to sound confused “Why would I not work for them? You know I always wanted to do something good for the world, once upon a time you did too”

_ Ouch. _ “I am doing something good for the world!” Though she knows it shouldn’t be a surprise that Greg, who Emma assumes never left home and the noble status that came with it, doesn’t think she is doing the right thing, it still hurts. Despite their conspiracies as children about the legitimacy of the king and queen, Greg never got a front row seat to the suffering in the same way Emma did, probably falling victim to the extensive propaganda that the ruling class was so fond of.

“Yeah, right” Greg scoffed “The kingdom will fall apart without that crown! It will call into question the legitimacy of the royal family”

“Yeah, I know” Emma smiled softly at Greg “Unfortunately I don’t have time to explain why that’s a good thing”

“What’s that supposed to–” Greg yelped as he fell to the ground. Emma having kicked out his legs, before smoothly shooting to her feet, tossing a small rock at the horse’s flank so that it run off back towards the kingdom.

“Sorry, Greg” Emma can hear him stumble off the ground, chasing her on foot instead of going after the horse. This complicates things. Emma knows the trail by heart, but that isn’t an advantage considering how much time she spent walking it with Greg when they were kids. She decides to risk going off trail, taking a sharp left turn in between two trees. Greg falls behind a little, but it wasn’t enough. When Emma trips on a tree branch at the end of the tree line, effectively sending the satchel flying over the edge of the cliff to get caught on a tree growing over the cliff, Greg is right behind her.

For just a second they lock eyes, an unsaid challenge, before they both sprint towards the tree. Emma grabs the back of Greg’s shirt, pulling him to the ground, but he grabs her pant leg in retaliation and her chin hits the ground. They wrestle their way to the tree, Emma crawling out koala style on the underside while Greg tries to knock her feet off. Emma gets to the branch first, victoriously grabbing the satchel, despite having no way off the tree.

_ CRACK _ .

The trunk of the tree splinters at the stump, the weight of two people too much. Emma desperately holds onto her end of the tree while it falls and can see Greg doing the same. There’s a rock sticking out of the cliffside right before the ground starts to flatten out. The center of the tree hits it, absorbing the impact and sending Emma and Greg in different directions. Emma does her best to keep her feet under her, sliding down the hill and rolling once she hits grass. 

By some miracle she stands uninjured, satchel (and crown) still in hand. Her pants are a little destroyed, but she’ll survive. She doesn’t recognize her surroundings at all, but she can faintly hear the sound of a waterfall so she walks towards it. Hopefully it will be connected to the same river that runs through the kingdom and she can follow it home. 

That plan goes out the window when she reaches a pile of rocks stretching out to both sides. It’s way too tall to climb, Emma picks a side and walks alongside the wall. Hopefully it will end and she can go past it. 

The only reason she notices the tunnel is because she’s dragging her hand along the rock and her hand goes straight through the vines that camouflage it.

Emma brushes the vines to the side, and steps through a small tunnel. It’s like she stepped into a new world. The clearing is backed by tall cliffs with a waterfall that she heard earlier, and there are rocks piled surrounding the other sides. Although the weirdest thing is definitely that there is a tall tower with a window at the very top standing in the center of the clearing.

“Why the fuck is there a tower here?” Emma mutters, circling the base of the tower trying to find a door (she is unsuccessful). The tower is in good shape, no chipped bricks or ivy, someone had to have been maintaining it recently. 

Emma looks up at the window, probably about two stories above, there are bricks sticking out here and there, it didn’t look very different from the wall she used to scale outside her bedroom window when she was a kid. She could climb it, maybe there’s something inside she could use, or she could wait out Greg until he gives up.

Decision made Emma jumps to grab the nearest brick and begins climbing. It’s hard, there isn’t always a good handhold and she has to improvise more than once. Yet within a few minutes she was reaching for the window sill and pulling herself through. She has just enough time to take in a couch and a shitton of art before something hard comes down on the back of her head.

**Author's Note:**

> i am NOT marking this as a multi chapter because I am not willing to commit to that right now, THAT SAID i have an extensive outline for this fic and am very excited about it. If I do decide to finish it I'll probably just delete this because this isn't even like,,, the actual beginning and that is definitely not the official title. So consider this a sneak peek.
> 
> as usual comments and kudos are neat and may even inspire me to crack down on this au! find me on tumblr [@izzy-mccalla](http://izzy-mccalla.tumblr.com/) where i post about the prom and some other stuff


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